Reality Awaits
by Zombie Kitty
Summary: 5 Years after the crew go into stasis to wait for Holly and Red Drawf to reverse out of the meteor belt. Blue Midget is crashed, could Cat and Kira be dead? COMPLETED


**Disclaimer:** Only own Kira, all other characters belong to the BBC, etc...

Don't foget to read the other stories in the right order, the order so far is:

Stasis Survivor  
The Reliant  
Realisations  
Reality Awaits

* * *

**Reality Awaits**

Reawakening

Lister yawned and picked up the piece of paper that he had tacked to the stasis door, to remind him of things he had to do when he woke up.

_Load Rimmer's hologram?_ He thought confused. "Hmmm Rimmer… Rimmer… Awww smeg." Lister cried aloud, banging his head on the stasis door as he regained his memory.

He stumbled out of the Ops room and down to where Rimmer's projection unit was. He keyed in the code and left the automated computer to finish booting up Rimmer, whilst Rimmer groggily made his way to the cockpit and flopped down in his chair. He turned on the comms and croaked into the crackling radio.

"Holly? Cat? Kira? His own voice surprised him as he called his crewmates. But all he could hear in return was white noise.

"Well, well, well Listy." Rimmer began as he appeared behind Lister in the doorway. "Here we are again, me a potential officer and you, the last smeg in the universe." Rimmer smiled smugly and swung on his heels, his emerald green uniform glittering in the ship's low lighting.

"Rimmer, for smeg's sake shut up!" Lister cried as he nervously changed the frequency and turned on the nearest monitor.

"Well sorry for breathing." Rimmer whined.

"You don't breathe though do yah?" Lister pointed out, scanning the mass space for the other two vessels.

"Yes Lister. That's because I'm dead." Lister groaned as he heard those words, realising that he had fallen into the trap again.

"Rimmer you don't…" Lister began, but trailed off, his eyes staring in horror at the monitor.

"I don't what Listy?" Rimmer taunted.

"Look at the screen man." Lister whispered before borrowing his head in his hands and biting his lip to hold back tears.

"Well? What am I looking at? I mean…" Rimmer stopped dead in mid sentence as the sight appeared on the monitor again.

Red Drawf was waiting for them a few miles away obviously battered from the meteors, but otherwise fine but what caught their eyes was the foreboding wreckage of Blue Midget 1.

"Are you there Dave? Arnold?" Came an unfamiliar female voice as a pale skinned woman with dark hair and brown eyes appeared on the monitor, replacing the view of the wreckage. Lister lifted his head to look at the woman, and rolled his eyes when he guessed who it was, before banging his head on the desk again.

"As commander of this vessel, I…" Rimmer began but was drowned out by Lister and the female; "Shut up smeghead."

Rimmer blinked in surprise. "Holly, is that you?"

"No, it's a female aardvark painted with orange stripes." Holly muttered sarcastically as he changed back to his normal head. As he did so Lister laughed through his tears and Rimmer looked evilly at the two of them.

"I got a bit bored when the meteors weren't busy bashing the ship you see." Holly explained.

"As much as all this transvestite stuff is soooo fascinating, what the smeg has happened to Blue Midget?" Rimmer asked in a scoffing tone, trying to regain some of his trampled pride.

"I don't know Arnold." Replied Holly curtly. "I suspect it may be a meteoroid thrown of course, but I'm not sure. I was waiting for you two before I went searching for the Black Box." Holly stopped waiting for the others to speak up.

"Why didn't you access the computer and wake us up earlier?" Asked Rimmer.

"I never thought of that, I wish I had now." Rimmer sighed in disbelief at the senility of the computer who used to have a brilliant IQ of 6000.

Lister looked up at Holly to see him chewing his bottom lip, an action that told Lister when there was more to come.

"What is it Hol? Tell us." Lister insisted, as he reached out to grab his favourite deer hunter hat from Cat's chair, where he had thrown it all those years ago, even though it seemed like yesterday.

"Scan's reveal that there are no human or feline life signs on board blue midget, and that anything that was in stasis would have died in the crash." Holly stopped awkwardly and coughed uncomfortable sounds into the already uncomfortable silence forming.

"No… no life signs?" Lister murmured, absently running his finger along Cat's self-decorated chair fabric.

Explorations

Rimmer, who was now back on Red Drawf looked into the monitor, to see what Lister was, through a camera attached to Lister's helmets.

Lister, dressed in his space suit was wandering room the damaged Ops room in a daze. He slowly peered through the dim light, expecting to see the bodies of his friends… but saw nothing.

His heart leaped as he checked the recordings on the suspended animation controls.

"They're alive!" He screamed doing a little dance before loosing his balance and falling over due to the weight of his suit.

"Lister, don't talk rot." Rimmer scoffed into the radio.

"No man, they are." Lister insisted. "The stasis panel shows they left the booths over a week ago." Lister stood up and made his way over to the burnt out cockpit, searching for the black box recording.

"Found it, I'll boot it up using what's left of the backup supply on one of the monitors." Lister explained as he did a botch job on the system rewiring.

"Well don't stand there blathering about it, play it." Rimmer whined, stamping his hologramatic foot silently on the floor.

"Ok, Ok. Keep you're H on, I've got to be careful, the wires are completely smegged. One false moved and I'm more cooked than a chicken kebab." Lister replied as he typed some keys into the panel and played the recording…

"Hey buds, or whoever finds this. I'm the stunningly gorgeous Cat, and me and my fiancé are in big trouble. We got brought out of the booth things early by the auto warning thingamajig but not early enough, we got hit by an off course meteor before we had time to move. Almost all the systems are dead and there's a second meteor heading our way – I can smell it. And to top it off, I can't find a comb anyway, it's just not our day. Kira's doing bad too buds, she's pretty beat up, she broke her leg in the crash. We can't wait for you guys as the oxygen tank is leaking, and the air is getting pretty thin in here. We're gonna escape in a 2 man pod salvaged from the Reliant and we're gonna jettison our self's outta here. We can't come to the Bug coz the smegging thing's automated to take us to the nearest breathable planet." Cat paused and looked off camera as he gently reassured Kira. "We're taking some emergency supplies and stuff, but you've gotta find us man, - I can only find one space suit – I'll go insane." Lister giggled quietly, trying not to drown out Cat's voice.

"If you can, salvage what you can of my suits from the cargo bay, oh and Kira's books. They should be easy to find I left them on a shelf somewhere, in my zebra print coat. Anyways, see you soon – very soon Buds."

The recording ended with Cat – his hair uncharacteristically strewn about and his suit covered in dust, bending down and picking up a pale looking Kira – her right leg hanging off at an angle. He then carried her out of shot, and out of the cockpit.

Lister stood, a smile developing over his face, and staring into space. He snapped out of it as he heard Rimmer calling his name.

"Brutal." Lister murmured, turning off the camera and comms and wandering down to the cargo bay to search for supplies and Cat's suits. As he walked he thought of Kira, Cat and what would have happened if they really had died.

He searched around and found Kira's books wrapped delicately in Cat's coat. Lister picked up the soft material wrapped package, and brushed 5 years of dust of the top. He then hugged the coat and books to his chest, collapsed onto the floor and wept tears of relief that his crewmates were alive.

Crash Land

While Lister was crying tears of joy, Cat and Kira were holding onto each other and crying with fear and pain.

The pod was burnt up pretty badly from atmospheric entry, and at that moment it was crashing down into a huge lake, and plunging to the bottom. When they stopped moving Cat tried to open the hatch door but found he couldn't, all they could do was wait for the others to rescue them.

Cat then huddled back close to Kira for body heat. After a moment he sat up and gently removed his black fabric jacket. He closed his eyes to try and block out his own actions and then ripped a piece off the jacket, wrapping it round Kira's leg like a bandage to try and cease the bleeding.

It had taken 7 days to arrive on the planet, but now they were stuck underwater with a limited air supply. He knew Alphabet head and Lister would have found the black box by now, and would be coming to get them, but even if they used Starbug or Blue Midget for most of the trip, he didn't think they would get to them in time before they ran out of oxygen.

Arrival 

Lister and Rimmer had been tracking the shuttle's path for 5 days, but were finally within visual range of the planet.

"Holly, are they there?" Lister yelled at a passing screen as he legged it towards the nearest transport hanger.

"Yes Dave, but you're not gonna like it." Holly said, just a little too brightly than the situation merited.

"Like what Hol?" Lister asked, stopping dead in his tracks.

"Scans indicate that they are trapped in the shuttle underwater and are rapidly running out of oxygen." Holly garbled quickly.

"RIMMER!" He yelled at a green shaped figure behind him. "Get the Medi-Bay ready!" Lister then disappeared into Starbug and banged the hatch door shut manually, not even bothering to use the key pad.

Rescue

Lister bounded out of the shuttle almost the second it landed. Scanning the lake with a genetic tracker that would home in on the Cat's position. He got a lock on, picked up an oxygen mask and a small brown parcel and dived into the lake.

Cat felt groggy and the fact that he could almost sense the air continue to thin did not help. He stroked Kira's face and held his breathe again to try and prolong the oxygen supply.

Kira suddenly coughed and woke up, she tried to speak, but Cat shushed her softly, telling her to save the air.

He was starting to give up hope when a faint scent of vindaloo reached his nostrils, followed by a faint noise on part of the escape pod door. After a moment he realised Lister was tapping Morse Code. Cat started to decipher the code in his head, thankful that Kira had taught him it one evening.

"M…O…V…E…Move?...SMEG!" Cat cried, as he grabbed Kira as gently as he could and pulled her close to protect her as Lister detonated a small charge, blowing the door and whatever was blocking it completely away.

The room was almost instantly full of water. Lister swam in and tried to give Cat the oxygen mask. Cat shuck his head. His long dark hair, floating beautifully and as gracefully as Cat himself. He pointed at Kira and Lister placed the mask over her mouth to prevent her drowning whilst unconscious. Lister and Cat then each took one of Kira's arms for support and swam to the surface, carrying Kira between them. Occasionally swapping the oxygen mask between them.

Reunions

Cat woke up and ran a hand threw his hair _–Dry? _He wondered how long he had been a sleep, he couldn't remember anything since they had reached Starbug.

He looked around to see he was back on Red Drawf – in the Medi-Bay. Kira was on the bed next to his, her leg in plaster.

"Hey buds." He coughed faintly, catching the attention of Rimmer and Lister who had been arguing with their backs turned.

"Hey, you're awake!" Cried Lister leaning over and hugging Cat, though with enough noise and gusto to start to wake up Kira in the process.

"Nice one goit." Muttered Rimmer under his breath.

"Now you look here." Started Lister, but was interrupted by Cat.

"You get my suits?" He murmured before turning away to look at Kira's stirring figures.

"Yeah, most of them, they'll need a wash though. – Oh wait, I've got your fav coat and Kira's books here." Lister said, passing the bundle to Cat.

"Thanks bud. You think you and Goal Post head can leave us alone for a minute?" Cat asked as he sat up and unwrapped his coat from round the Catherine Cookson novels.

"Sure, come on Goaly. Lets give the love birds their privacy." Lister smiled, exiting the room.

"Rimmer followed, in an arguable mood. "Who'd you think you're calling Goaly? I mean…" Cat listened till he could no longer hear Rimmer's irritating voice from the corridor.

"Kira?" Cat asked, tentatively.

"Hmmm?" Came the quiet reply as Kira opened her eyes and turned her head to see Cat's expression – which was slightly worried.

"How'd you feel babe?" He questioned he leant over herm staring into her sparkling emerald eyes.

"Like you did when you tore up your suit to make my bandage." She smiled at Cat and he forced a smile back as she drifted back into unconsciousness.

Cat's smile disappeared as he frowned and thought about her words. "That bad babe?" He asked rhetorically to her sleeping figure.

"Cat laid back on his bed, picked up one of Kira's books and started to read, determined not to be put off by the fact that the books contained words instead of smells.

At about page 56 Cat shot to Kira's side as she stirred slightly and called his name.

"Babe?" He asked as she started to gently trace the tips of her fingers round the lines and creases adorning Cat's face.

"I dreamt you didn't exist." She moaned as she pulled him nearer and they kissed.

"Poor you, me not existing is my worst nightmare too." Cat soothed, wiping away a tear that silently ran down her face.

"I woke up, frightened that another reality awaited me… One without you." Kira whispered as she played with one of Cat's hair strands.

"The only reality that awaits you is this one, with me, Lister, Smeghead, and Holly…" Cat suddenly paused and sniffed the air around Kira… "All 6 of us together."

As he finished his sentence a smile started to grow and grow on his face.

Cat meanwhile worked some fast mental arithmetic.

"Don't you mean the 5 of us?" Kira asked, temporally puzzled.

"Cat shuck his head softly. "No. Babe, you're pregnant." Cat whispered, tightly gripping her hand. "I can smell her presence."

"But a litter of kittens? I mean…" Kira trailed off in shock.

"Singular, just one kitten, and I'd stake my nose on it that she's a girl." Cat interjected. He then waited in a state of subdued panic for Kira's reaction.

"Just once… One time…" Kira mumbled, before saying – still in shock; "I've been pregnant for 5 years?"

"Well yeah babe, frozen in time with mummy." Cat still looked worried but he soon relaxed as he saw Kira smile.

"If this is what my reality awaits, then bring it on!" Kira laughed as Cat placed a hand on her room and then leant in and they kissed again, their contrasting eye colours meeting as one in each other's reflection.

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere

I'm all alone, more or less

Let me fly far away from here

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun

I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose

Drinking fresh mango juice

Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun

* * *

OMG I could just not kill Kira, I just can't do it, The series will go on forever or something. 

But the next one will either be set well after the birth of the child in series 3 after Kyryten's joined and Lister's kids have gone to the other reality. OR it will be set while Kira's almost at full term and Listers a couple of months pregnant, I'm not sure, but I need to jump to the more advanced series somehow.


End file.
